Several hundred pounds of fuel would be approximately 2100 gallons (based on the assumption of 300 pounds)
If you calculate that water is 7 pounds per gallon and kerosene is heavier, then that is only an estimate.
2100 gallons is sure a lot of fuel to consider a planes tanks empty.
No, it goes the other way. 300 pounds of fuel would equal about 50 gallons, assuming 6 pounds per gallon (is kerosene heavier than water or lighter?). I just pulled that number out figuring that maybe 1% of the fuel in a tank wouldn't get used--maybe not pulled out due to insufficient pressure. That's just like saying that your car might have .15 or .2 gallons of gas left in it when the engine quits.
Well, in any case, it's sheer conjecture. Something onboard that plane obviously could burn even if all the jet fuel was gone. It could've been something as simple as the engine components still being hot enough to start brush fires when they hit the ground--the area of the crash did look brushy and dry. And fire really is secondary here anyhow, as the impact was obviously enough to completely destroy everything except the tail, which oddly enough, looked perfectly intact except for a couple of wrinkles.
Not being able to find the CVR, assuming they can't, is going to leave a big hole in the investigation. Even if the crew response to the original problem isn't on there, it could detail what the people in the cockpit were doing during the last 30 minutes of flight, and possibly who they were. If the CVR was just blown out of its box in the crash and destroyed, that's one thing. But if that plane was flying with the CVR actually removed, somebody's ass is grass. You know they'll be made an example of.
}:-)4
I think kerosene is less dense than water. Water is about 8.3 pounds per gallon. 2100 gallons at 7 pounds per gallon would be 14,700 pounds (2100 * 7 = 14,700).
But more to the point...I used to be a crew chief on the 737's big sister, the KC-145, and when I put my bird in Fuel shop, we would have a fuel truck come over and drain all the tanks. Then I'd go under the aircraft and drain the remaining fuel out of the tanks (sometimes quite a bit) with a fuel bowser. Then, when we got into fuel shop, the fuel tank guys would wear respirators and high boots while they worked because there would be pools of jet fuel at the bottom of the tanks, hiding in the recesses that couldn't be drained by the manual drain valve I had used. Not much (probaly less than 20 gallons in the whole plane) but plenty for starting a fire, and that was after I spent an hour doing a manual drain job.
Trust me, there was plenty of fuel in those tanks to start a fire with, and plenty of fumes, too.
2100 lbs would be about 1000 lbs per tank left (the center tank is drained first). At different pitch attitudes it might uncover the pumps and have fuel starvation. Also Probably out of balance (trim) by then with no pilot inputs, one engine could have gone first causing a loss of control. The fuel quantity gauge error of each 10,000 lb (full) tank is 10% which means between 0 and 1,000 lbs left in each tank! I'd never plan to get anywhere with that little fuel in a 737.